Gregor Wurst is a professor of ecclesiastical history and patristics at the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the University of Augsburg, Germany. He is member of the editorial board of the Nag 'Hammadi and Manichaean Studies series. Collaborating with Professor Rodolphe Kasser, Wurst is one of the two editors of the original Coptic of the Gospel of Judas. Wurst is published widely on Manichaean texts from Coptic Egypt and from Roman North Africa, originating in the long debates of St. Augustine with Latin-speaking Manichaeans of his time. Among his books are Das Bemafest der ägyptischen Manichäer (Oros-Verlag, 1994), Liber Psalmorum. Part II,1: Die Bema-Psalmen, published within the UAI- and UNESCO-supported series Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum (Brepols, 1996), and, as co-editor, Augustine and Manichaeism in the Latin West. Proceedings of the Fribourg-Utrecht International Symposium of the International Association of Manichaean Studies (Brill, 2001). He is publishing his thesis of habilitation on Coptic and Syriac texts, transmitting a version of a second-century Christian homily written by the Church father Meliton of Sardes: "Die Homilie De anima et corpore, ein Werk des Meliton von Sardes? Einleitung, synoptische Edition, Übersetzung, Kommentar" (scheduled for 2006/2007). Wurst earned his Ph.D. from the University of Münster, graduating summa cum laude, and a habilitation in theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

"If the Gospel of Judas found in Codex Tchacos can be convincingly identified as being a Coptic translation of the original Greek Gospel of Judas that Bishop Ireneaus mentioned around A.D. 180 in his book, "Against Heresies," it will be an important step in the study of ancient gnosticism. We would have for the first time the chance to trace back the history of Sethian gnosticism to before the time of Irenaeus. This would be a significant gain in our knowledge of early Christianity."